An ode to public libraries and youth empowerment that falters due to flawed representation.
Middle schoolers become community heroes as they unite to save their public library.
For seventh grader Casey, life with his widowed dad has meant living in 10 homes over 12 years. When his father gets a job at the Cornish Library, they settle into their new neighborhood. Casey joins a soccer team and befriends Addison, a girl who’s a fellow book nerd. But he feels pressure to be someone he’s not when around his teammates, jeopardizing his relationship with Addison. Through this uncertainty, Casey looks to his community, teammate Emmanual Musa (another new kid in town), and the library, a historical landmark, to anchor him. The library’s stunning architecture and resident mallard, Daisy, who nests in the rooftop garden each spring, make it a beloved town hub. When costly repairs threaten the library’s existence, Casey advocates to save it. Along with his friends and a faculty adviser, he enters the Kids Community Action Network contest in hopes of winning $30,000. The first-person narration resonates as Casey learns to recognize true friendship, define his values, and embrace his leadership potential. Casey and his father read white. Unfortunately, Emmanual, who’s cued Black, falls into the trope of the unrealistically perfect, two-dimensional best friend of color. He has little backstory of his own and seems to exist solely to guide and support Casey through his own growth and serve as the peacemaker and moral compass for others.
An ode to public libraries and youth empowerment that falters due to flawed representation. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781772783520
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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